Seattle Historical Sites

In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places.

In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to be within and potentially contributing to a potential National Register of Historic Places historic district encompassing the Sacred Heart campus.

In the opinion of the survey, this property appears to meet the criteria of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance.

This Contemporary style church is in the Uptown neighborhood and known as the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

The Sacred Heart Parish hired architect John W. Maloney to design the building. R. O. Lund served as the project architect. The drawings were dated to July of 1959. The building featured meeting and storage rooms at the basement level. The south end of the building connected to the existing rectory, also designed by John W. Maloney and was located just east of the existing convent. Worthington, Skilling, Jackson, Helle were the structural engineers. N. D. McDonald Company was the contractor. Timber Structures, Inc. fabricated the glue laminated arched beams supporting the walls and roof at the main sanctuary volume.

The parish had been established at Sixth Avenue and Bell Street in 1889 and opened an elementary school in 1891. The parish moved to the current site in 1928 and built the Sacred Heart School and Chapel that same year at the northeast corner of Warren Avenue and John Street, followed by the Sister’s Convent in 1929, and then the Rectory in 1959.

As part of the 1960 church construction, the congregation shipped logs from Washington state to Italy to have them carved into statues for use in the new church.

The building is also under 231 Second Avenue N. The overall site and permit records are listed under 160 John Street.

John W. Maloney (1896–1978) was born in Sacramento and moved to the Puget Sound by the early 1900s. Maloney attended the University of Washington and Stanford University. He established his practice in Yakima in 1922 where he designed the eleven story, Art Deco A. E. Larson Building (1931). In 1943 Maloney opened an office in Seattle. His career included a wide range of commercial buildings as well as academic buildings for university campuses across the state. As a sole practitioner, Maloney also designed numerous buildings for the Catholic Church, including St. Benedict Catholic Church in Wallingford (ca. 1958), Holy Family Church in West Seattle (ca. 1956), St. Anne Church and Rectory on Queen Anne Hill (1960), and St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore (1958). This work all occurred within a similar timeframe as his work at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church campus in Uptown. In 1963, Maloney took on partners as he looked ahead to retirement in 1970. The firm name changed to Maloney, Herrington, Freesz & Lund.

References:

City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.

Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, ed., Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Guide to the Architects (Seattle, University of Washington Press: 2014), 2nd edition.

King County Property Record Card (c. 1938–1972), Washington State Archives.

Northwest Catholic News. “Parish at Seattle’s Center ‘Has Seen it All.’” (December 2, 2014. URL: http://www.nwcatholic.org/news/local/seattle-center-parish. Accessed July 19, 2018.

Polk's Seattle Directories, 1890–1996.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish website. “Church History.” https://www.sacredheartseattle.com/79. Accessed July 19, 2018.

Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Places. Architect Biographies. “John W. Maloney.” Accessed July 19, 2018. https://dahp.wa.gov/historic-preservation/research-and-technical-preservation-guidance/architect-biographies/bio-for-john-w-Maloney

Constructed in 1960, the three-story church has a rectangular plan. The building stands at the southwest corner of Thomas Street and Second Avenue N. The building faces north fronting Thomas Street. An alley and parking extend along the west side of the building.

The south side of the site provides a link with the building to the south. This link consists of a paved walkway with a landscaped lawn, stone and concrete pathway. A fence along the east side of this space separates it from the public right-of-way along Second Avenue N. The north and northeast corner provide an important circulation connection from Thomas Street and Second Avenue N into the church. This area consists of a broad paved expanse with a flight of stairs on the north side, and an at grade connection with the sidewalk along Second Avenue North. Foundation plantings including lawn and small ornamental trees and shrubs wrap along the north, east, and west sides of the building. A bell bearing the inscription “recast from the old bells of sacred hearth church” and cast by the Henry Stuckstede Bell Foundry Company of St Louis Missouri, in 1899 is supported by a metal stand on the east side of the building. This bell is the recast remains of the two bells that were in the original church at Sixth Avenue and Bell Street.

A front gable roof shelters interior spaces. Clay tile clads the roof. The roof features slight eave and gable overhangs. The eaves consist of sandstone blocks and gutter with exterior downspouts. A narrow barge board defines the gable end. The bell tower is located off the northwest corner of the building. The building also includes several lower flat roofs with parapets over one story volumes. Rolled roofing covers these roofs. These occur along the south end, north and south ends of the east and west facades. These feature flush eaves with a stepped frieze at each parapet with a sheet metal flashing cap. An internal brick clad chimney in the southwest corner of the building supports the building’s heating system.

A concrete foundation supports the buildings platform frame structure. Brick veneer consists of varying shades of brown, creating a pronounced visual effect and continuing the aesthetic established by the Sacred Heart School and the Convent. The bell tower features a square plan and continues the same brick veneer. Each side of the tower has two vertical bands of stone veneer with three sets of metal panels at the top of the tower.

Aluminum sash windows provide day lighting. Window openings feature sandstone slip sills. Windows consist of three lite units with a lower operable sash. The northeast corner of the building features a rounded projection having a series of windows separated by stone clad wall sections. A row of eight, tall stained glass relites set in aluminum frames on the east and west facades occur at the sanctuary, with another two at the north gable end.

The front north entrances consist of the main doorway on the north and a side northeast entrance. At each entrance, double doors lead to the building interior. Southeast entrances consist of flush panel wood doors with an upper lite. One doorway is at grade and the other accessed by a short flight of concrete stairs with a metal railing. These provide access to the one story volumes at the south end of the church.

Alterations include a renovation in 1981 designed by architect Roy W. Koczarski. Valentine, Fisher & Tomlinson were the consulting engineers.